We're home!

Posted by Elizabeth. We made it home safe and sound. A bit of culture shock and some time zone adjustment but we're glad to be here.

The last six months have been quite an adventure. As you've read, it hasn't always been perfect and being together every minute of every day certainly had its challenges but overall I'm so glad we did it. 

My greatest lesson from this time is that we all have a greater capacity than we think. We learned we could navigate complicated metro systems and order vegetarian food in a foreign language. We handled daily living in countries and languages we didn't understand. We lived out of suitcases for six months and courageously tackled long travel days time after time. 

Especially for teenagers life can sometimes feel impossible or overwhelming or just too much work. I want our boys to remember that they accomplished so much on this trip and stretched themselves in ways they didn't think they could. I hope it becomes part of their DNA and that they are forever more confident, more open minded and more willing to take risks to truly experience life. 

I need to take a nap now. Thank you all for sharing our adventures. Writing this blog kept us connected to all of you. 

Accomodations on our trip

Berlin

Posted by Elizabeth. I've had a few people ask where we stayed on our trip. I've captured links to all of the apartments below. Almost all were fantastic and I would highly recommend them to anyone travelling. Let me know if you have specific questions.

 

Haarlem

• Seville https://airbnb.com/rooms/871436?s=8
• Granada http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p90797
• Barcelona https://airbnb.com/rooms/1162044?s=8
• Florence https://airbnb.com/rooms/2172706?s=8
• Venice https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/75760
• Rome https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2072833
• Cinque Terra/Levanto https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1973385
• Paris https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/760999
• Izmir https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1943524
• Selcuk http://www.ephesussuites.com/
• Pamukkale http://venushotel.net/
• Faralya http://montenegromotel.com/
• Kabak http://olivegardenkabak.com/index_eng.html
• Patara http://pataraflowerpension.com/
• Istanbul https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/959977
• Berlin https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1102875
• Haarlem https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2996300
• Paris http://www.vrbo.com/6412835ha?unitId=2000451
• Bath http://www.hideaways.co.uk/holiday-cottage/old-dairy-barn-H493
• London https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4891145
• Biarritz https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1307340



Florence

Basque summer

Above San Sebastian

Posted by Elizabeth. We've been in Basque country for the last couple weeks. Based in lovely Biarritz we've made day trips to San Jean de Luz, San Jean Pied de Port and we're currently in San Sebastian.

There's so much to love about this area. First are the incredible beaches with warm water and silky sand. Queen Isabel II and Queen Maria Cristina both spent time in San Sebastián bathing in the waters for health purposes and Queen Eugenie (married to Napolean III) lived in an ornate home in Biarritz. 



Pintxos

The food and drink of the area would be enough to lure visitors even if the sun wasn't shining and the sea wasn't sparkling. In Spain, Basque pintxos (tapas) are on every bar top with prawns, crab, cheese with local preserves, Iberian ham, and octopus while local cider, Irouleguy wine, and sangria soothe the nerves of hot and tired American mothers. 



"Basque prisoners and refugees home"

In Spain, the Basque culture is more separatist than in subdued France. The Euskara language is spoken by many people and is primary on road signs and cultural monuments. Last night we stayed in an apartment in the San Sebastián harbor just above a late night Basque party which included a mechanical bull (held by a man) running through the streets with firecrackers exploding from his head chasing children. At the farmers market in Biarritz the Basque men stand at the bar sipping their wine, slurping their oysters and singing local ballads to each other. 



Funicular

A highlight of San Sebastián was our trip up the funicular with the Danielsen Wongs to the old school amusement park high above the town and beach. We had a boat ride that hugged the cliff above the beach and we precariously sped over the ocean on the rickety roller coaster (ok, guess who sat that one out). A very fun evening with our friends. 

This has definitely been a relaxing way to end our travels. We are perpetually coated in a thin layer of sand and the boys have turned the color of a perfect Basque cake. Summertime at its best. 

Life's a beach

Posted by Elizabeth. We're spending our last few weeks in Biarritz. Such a lovely town on the southwest coast of France. Both yachters and surfers call it their summer home. It's the perfect place for us to decompress and prepare ourselves for the reentry into our lives.

Go Team Sky!

Posted by Leo. The Tour de France is a bicycling race in Europe. Teams from all over the world come to compete. The teams don’t always have to consist of a certain type of people like all British. Most of the teams have mixed nationalities with French, American, Canadian, and British, and many other different places.


The course changes every year and the roads are always different – changing from smooth concrete to cobblestone. People pick their favorite team and root for them. My personal favorite is Team Sky. They were started around Bradley Wiggins a three time gold medalist with six world champion titles. Once Wiggins retired in 2014 he left the team to his teammate Chris Froome who is wearing the yellow jersey today.


Here you can find more information http://www.letour.fr/us/

Our Tour de France

Posted by Elizabeth. Bike racing is huge in France and the year culminates with the Tour de France in July. A couple weeks ago I realized we would be within 45 minutes of Le Tour while in Brussels. What luck! So yesterday at 09:00 we hopped on the intercity train at Brussels Midi for the easy 45 min ride to Antwerp where stage 3 started.

Like me, you may be confused about the city where stage three was held. Throughout most of the world Antwerp is Antwerp not Anvers. But, like everything in Belgium, the city has a French name (Anvers) and a Flemish name (Antwerp). Every street sign, every menu, every canned good is labeled in both languages and often in German too. It makes for some confusion (is my stop at Gare Midi or Zuid?) but the locals are exceedingly bi and tri lingual so they seem to have no problems. 

We got into Antwerp Centrale and followed the yellow banners and the crowd through the heart of town to the start of the race. We found great spots right at the starting line and hung out watching the publicity caravan and all the sponsor floats which proceed the day's race. 

As 1pm neared, the crowds started to thicken but never got unruly. The first bikers pedaled past using the road in front of us as their warm up lane. Soon there was a large pack of riders getting into position literally two feet from where we stood. They all waited as Fabian Cancellara, the previous day's winner, made his way to the front. The English speaking announcer then led us all in a countdown to the start. Yelling 3...2...1 with thousands of excited spectators and watching the riders' faces as they mentally prepared for a challenging day was exhilarating. Leo's favorite part was the rider who quickly downed his sandwich right in front of us and threw his wrapper at Leo's feet. I loved seeing the camaraderie among the riders as they helped each other fix seats and tires and joked around waiting to take off. 

The race moved from Antwerp through central Belgium to end with a killer hill in the town of Huy/Hoei (pronounced "Wee"). When we got back to our apartment we learned there had been a terrible crash before they headed into Huy with at least three riders out and many more injured. The race was halted as medical crews assessed the riders and damaged bikes were pulled off the course. Terrifying to watch the riders fly over each other and land in the road and grass but amazing to see their strength and fortitude as they got back on their bikes knowing they had one of the hardest hills of the course ahead of them. 

We are sad to leave Belgium (oh my chocolate how much I'll miss you) but we're headed into our last couple weeks in Biarritz on the southwest coast of France. Looking forward to seeing some friends and explaining the French custom of topless bathing to my teenage boys. 

Living history in Belgium

Ommegang Brussels

Posted by Elizabeth. It's been a while since I've posted. Honestly I have felt a little burnt out. Our travels have been amazing to say the least but being on the road with one's family for 6 months can be tiring.

We're also getting towards the end of our trip which makes me think more of home and less of the excitement here. I'm working to be more like Beth who admits herself that she lives so much in the moment that she sometimes forgets where she's going. I'm constantly asking her if she knows what we're doing next or where we are in the city. (The answer is usually "no" to both questions.) While we're pretty much polar opposites in this regard there's a lot we can learn from each other :). 

We're currently in Brussels. It's an interesting city. In some ways it's a lot like other Northern European cities. Big squares, lots of drinking, chocolate everywhere, quirky French signs. But as the center of the EU and other major governmental organizations it's also a bit dull. The architecture is haphazard at best and much of the city is made up of glass and concrete office buildings. Thanks to Griffin we have found some interesting areas (such as the flea market this morning) and our apartment is near a very fun area off Saint Catherine's square with cafes and a canal and, my favorites, an organic grocery store and yoga studio. Plus the beer here really is superior and the waffles have kept one of our family members very happy. 

A highlight for me was two nights ago when Griffin and I went to an outdoor show in the Grand Place. This is THE center of Brussels and you can see why. The buildings around the square are stunning and its a lovely size for a town square. The show was a reinactment of the Ommegang which is a traditional procession which started in 1348 when a devout woman had a vision to steal a statue of the Virgin Mary in Antwerp and bring it to Brussels (sort of an early frat boy escapade). The procession continued over the years and Charles V made it his own in the 1500s. What's so cool is that it has continued pretty much every year since then. Griffin was a great date because he had just finished AP European History and could fill me in on all the details of Charles and his family and the ever powerful Habsburg clan. They were like the Kardashians if they owned all of the western world with Khloe as the Queen of Germany and Kendall the Empress of China. 

Ommegang in the 1600s

Ommegang today

The Ommegang that night was a very realistic version of a July night almost 500 years ago. There were horses and Knights and Charles himself sat in the grandstand welcoming all of his 

admirers. It didn't hurt that it was a beautiful warm night and we sat in the middle of one of the most beautiful squares in Europe with each building lit up to show off the gold and ornamentation. 

Grand Place lit up. Spectacular!

We end our week in Belgium on Monday with a day trip to Antwerp to see the start of day 3 of the Tour de France. I'm so excited to see the amazing athletes and be a part of another venerable European tradition.

A town with a moat

Posted by Leo. Yesterday we went to this small town called Bruges. When we arrived I was relived because the temperature dropped about 20 degrees from where we had been in Brussels. We got off the train and headed to this district where all the tourists are. On our way we walked through a small park and saw 30 swans hanging out in a canal. We ended up eating at a vegetarian restaurant. After we finished eating a thunderstorm started so we waited it out. We walked all over this little town. It’s actually a small manmade island, originally a town with a moat going all around it. When we got back to Brussels, the temperature had cooled down!

Travel days

Doing dishes. Not so fun.

Posted by Leo. Travel days are the hardest days of our trip. Whenever we move places its always early in the morning so everyone gets up early. All of my family is used to sleeping in, especially me and Griffin. My mom wakes up cranky. She is always making us pack faster and faster. The pressure is high because if I slow down, complain, or give up I'll get yelled at. We try to stay away from Mom but that's impossible because she is everywhere.


I have a hard time staying on track and focusing on packing and cleaning. Many of the things I’m told to do are about cleaning the bathroom. I hate that job because it smells bad sometimes. My parents told me that I needed to get over my “fear” of cleaning them. I really don’t like getting my hands dirty. For example, when I do the dishes I hate touching the ones that still have food or ketchup on them. Last night we had Indian food and the dishes smelled bad and were really dirty.

We headed back to the Lamborghini shop

Lamborghini Aventador

Posted by Leo. When we were in London I went to the London Natural History Museum. The museum itself was boring but as we were getting there I saw six Lamborghinis! As soon as we got off the train and got to street level I saw a black Lamborghini Aventador drive by. Across the street was the Lamborghini London store.
After seeing my first Lamborghini drive by and my first glance at the shop we headed off to the Victoria and Albert Museum. We saw many dull paintings but there was one thing that interested me -- the Iron Work. Iron work is metal bent into different objects like fences, old castle doors, and chests. Beth and I split off from Griffin who continued looking.
We headed back to the Lamborghini shop and on our way over a Sesto Elemento drove by. When we got there, it was closed so we looked through the windows and saw five Lamborghini Hurricanes: two red, one orange, one black, and one white one. That was amazing.

Theater in London

Posted by Griffin. We have gone to see a lot of theater in London. First we went to see Measure for Measure at the Globe. This was a wonderful, very Shakespearean, experience, and I would highly recommend the Globe to anyone visiting London. The Globe has been rebuilt like it would have been in the 17th century. The acting is phenomenal, and I would highly recommend the Globe to anyone in London.

The exterior of the Globe

On Wednesday night we went to see Wicked! Wicked is so fun! It is a musical reimagining of the "life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West". It is amazing, and is pretty much the closest thing to perfection. Ever.

Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theater

The curtain for Wicked

On Thursday we went to see Mamma Mia! Mamma Mia is such a fun, sunny musical that you couldn't not love it. It's a feel good story that uses hits from the 80's, whats not to love?

Mamma Mia! at the Novello Theater

Theater in London is so amazing! There is such a variety of shows, and the casts are some of the best in the world. Choose whichever show interests you, and go.

Tate Modern

Posted by Griffin. This week Beth and I went to Tate Modern. The museum sits in a converted factory on the bank of the Thames, and the brick silo strikes a dramatic figure against the London sky. The entrance opens into a ginormous concrete hall, with hallways that spill into various galleries.

The exterior of Tate Modern

The galleries are organized thematically, instead of chronologically, which I like. I feel that specifically with modern and contemporary art organizing thematically gives individual pieces context that organizing chronologically does not. The first gallery that we went to was the "Energy and Process" gallery. This gallery had a large number of works, many from, or influenced by, the Italian "Art Provera" movement. This movement was all about using everyday objects to create art. For example the sculpture seen below is made up of only two metal plates, with no attachment, it relies entirely on balance to stay upright. This art is powerful, the materials prompt the viewer to think about their relationship with the material.

Triphammer by Richard Serra

The next gallery that we went to was the pop art gallery. This gallery featured a wonderful collection of works by Andy Warhol and Ray Lichtenstein. These works are fun. They use popular images, hence the name "pop art", to create art. One of my favorite works was Whaam! By Roy Lichtenstein. This work takes it source from a comic, and Lichtenstein replicates comic in painstaking detail, even using the colored dots that comics use to create shaded color. This work is a powerful statement against warfare, and reminds us about the social power of art.

Whaam! by Roy Lichtenstein

Unfortunately we had to cut our visit short in order to get to the theater, but I highly recommend Tate Modern. The galleries are spacious and the art is accessible and enjoyable. However if visiting during the week prepare yourself for school groups, Tate Modern is one of the most visited tourist attractions in London, so go early (or late) to avoid the crowds.